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LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION paying tribute to the life and accomplishments of
Rosa Parks, a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement

WHEREAS,  It is with profound intent that this Legislative Body is moved
to pay homage to a woman  of  indomitable  faith  and  dedication  whose
purposeful life and accomplishments will forever stand as a paradigm and
inspiration for others; and
  WHEREAS,  It  is the sense of this Legislative Body to give acclaim to
individuals of great character whose lives exemplify the highest  ideals
of humanity; and
  WHEREAS,  Rosa  Parks,  a Black seamstress whose refusal to relinquish
her seat to a White man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on  Decem-
ber  1,  1955,  grew into a mythic event that helped touch off the civil
rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s; and
  WHEREAS, For her act of defiance, Rosa Parks was  arrested,  convicted
of  violating the segregation laws and fined $10, plus $4 in court fees;
in response, Blacks in Montgomery,  Alabama,  boycotted  the  buses  for
nearly  13 months while mounting a successful Supreme Court challenge to
the Jim Crow law that enforced their second-class status on  the  public
bus system; and
  WHEREAS,  The  events  that  began  on  that bus in the winter of 1955
captivated the nation and transformed a 26-year-old preacher  named  Dr.
Martin  Luther  King,  Jr.  into a major civil rights leader; it was Dr.
King, the new pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in  Montgomery,
Alabama, who was drafted to head the Montgomery Improvement Association,
the organization formed to direct the nascent civil rights struggle; and
  WHEREAS,  Rosa Parks's act of civil disobedience, which seems a simple
gesture of defiance so many years later, was in fact a  dangerous,  even
reckless  move  in  1950s Alabama; in refusing to move, she risked legal
sanction and perhaps even physical harm, but she also  set  into  motion
something  beyond the control of the city authorities; Mrs. Parks clari-
fied for people far beyond Montgomery, Alabama, the cruelty and  humili-
ation inherent in the laws and customs of segregation; and
  WHEREAS,  That  moment  on the Cleveland Avenue bus also turned a very
private woman into a reluctant symbol and torchbearer in the  quest  for
racial  equality  in  a  movement that became increasingly organized and
sophisticated in making demands and getting results; and
  WHEREAS, The truth, as Rosa Parks later explained, was  that  she  was
tired  of  being  humiliated, of having to adapt to the byzantine rules,
some codified as law and others passed on as tradition, that  reinforced
the position of Blacks as something less than full human beings; and
  WHEREAS,  A true civil rights icon, Rosa Parks died a little more than
a month short of the 50th Anniversary of her courageous act  which  many
view as the beginning of the civil rights movement; and
  WHEREAS,  Rosa  Parks's  pure  legacy  of quiet and peaceful rebellion
against hatred will live on for many years to come; and
  WHEREAS, Armed with a  humanistic  spirit,  imbued  with  a  sense  of
compassion, and comforted by numerous admirers, Rosa Parks leaves behind
a legacy which will long endure the passage of time and will remain as a
comforting  memory  to all she served and befriended; now, therefore, be
it
  RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to pay
tribute to the life and accomplishments of Rosa Parks, a pioneer of  the
Civil Rights Movement.